I need some help from you more experienced guys ...I have to replace the tracking bar on a 98 dodge 2500 diesel pick up is this a straight forward procedure ,jack the front end up ,remove the old one and replace with the new one or will I need to make adjustments to anything or loosen anything else off .
Thanks
Sean

 

tracking bar?? track bar? If its what I think you are talking about it should just be a bolt off bolt on process, then I would go down and get it professionally aligned, they will adjust all of that for you once its on.

 

If it's just the track bar, you don't need to jack it up or have it aligned for that matter.

 

no jacking required, and the only thing that needs to be adjusted is the tierod adjuster right next to the piman arm, take it for a drive, see how much the steering wheel is out and spin the adjuster sleeve in our out (depending on what you need) and drive it again to confirm the fix. keep doing this until your happy with the steering wheel alignment, saves you $100 by doing it yourself, just make sure you tighten everything up when your done.

 

thanks for the info guys will swap it out on the weekend
Sean

 

well I got the track bar off went to put the new one on and it doesnt fit standing the track bars on end the new one is 1 inch longer and missing a slight offset I took it back to the parts supplier he is checking it out this is on a 98 dodge ram diesel 4x4 is there more than one track bar for this model am I supposed to jack the truck up to install the track bar there is no adjustment so I assume the old and new parts would be the same length.
thanks

 

I knew it! Same thing happened to me. I had mine replaced with a Napa crapper and the steering wheel was way off so they adjusted it and then the steering went sloppy. I've always wondered if the replacement bar was not the same length as oem. Where'd you get the replacement?

 

You know, now that you say that I'm thinking the same thing. I've replaced mine twice with a MOOG but never matched the first one up with the OEM one. However, I did have to push the nose of the truck over to get it installed, when I didn't think the truck moved at all when I took the old one off. Hmm! I would think a MOOG would be to OEM specs though.

 

hi
thanks for the replies
the track bar came from a warehouse that supplies all the parts suppliers like napa my parts guy ordered a replacement it was the same as the first one he ordered so he ordered a different part number today so tomorrow I will see what shows up ,I could probably force the new one in there somehow but the old one just popped right out nothing seemed to move so I figured the new one should just drop in to place.
I checked the old and new parts out when the new one wouldnt fit and as I mentioned the new one was an inch longer and missing a slight offset compared to the old one I didnt know if they had an engineering change part way through the model year build so I took the vin number down to my parts supplier this time.
the only other thing was I found a broken shock so I replaced both front shocks but I cant see that making any difference to thr fit of the track bar.

 

If you turn the wheels left or right while the bar is out, you'll lengthen and shorten the distance between the mounts.